Public order practice
The majority of public protests in Australia are peaceful, with the police using little or no aggression. However, sometimes more force is used to coerce activists.
Capsicum Spray
Capsicum spray (aka pepper spray) is a capsicum based chemical weapon. When sprayed in a person’s face, it causes extreme pain. Many injuries occur when the person falls to the ground.
If you are asthmatic or a pregnant woman, or if you have heart, lung or respiratory disease, be sure to keep constantly alert to situations where capsicum spray is likely to be used. There is a danger of capsicum spray being used present at any protest where there is police presence.
The usual advice is that if the police use any sort of gas or spray, it is best to protect your mouth and eyes with some cloth material. It's important to keep any asthma medication within reach and know where to go for first aid.
Horses
The use of horses by the police can be intimidating for protesters and they are regularly seen at protests. Lines of police horses can be used to contain or separate activists. Long lines of police officers can deter and prevent activists from getting inside an area or building, and can effectively limit the protest. If activists attempt to protest in a particular building or intervene in an event, conflict can break out and become concentrated at police lines.
There seems to be an increasing trend to use horses at large protests. The presence at horses at protests heightens the danger to protesters. Horses trampled protesters at the anti-WTO protests in 2002 in Sydney. A journalist from The Australian newspaper suffered a suspected fractured pelvis when she was assaulted by a police horse.
The use of batons and excessive force
Police tend to use forceful tactics at protests when they perceive that order is compromised. This is why large and well-organised protests whose participants plan to actually intervene or blockade, such as the at World Economic Forum in Melbourne in September 2000, tend to receive extremely forceful premeditated police responses.
Police sometimes outnumber protesters more than twofold. Do not assume that police will act only when provoked. Front line officers act on orders, regardless of what they personally see. Police have been known to strike protesters over the head and body with batons, or to kick, punch and drag protesters behind police lines. This is where keeping close to other protesters becomes particularly important, as is staying where there is media and potential witnesses.
Another vulnerable time for protesters is when the rally seems to have finished and people are drifting away. With reduced protester numbers, police sometimes take that opportunity to attempt to clear the area of remaining attendees.
When subject to police violence, protesters find themselves in a difficult situation in that there is a natural instinct to fight back. However, assaulting police is a serious offence, and may be the easiest way for them to justify the use of further force on or other protesters.
Snatch and grab
Police may also form “snatch squads”—groups of 10 or so officers— to barge into crowds of protesters to seize particular individuals identified by surveillance cameras. (Officers may watch crowds of protesters through binoculars or use cameras to film particular participants’ faces). Be aware that in such a circumstance, police may use force.
An example of this was the "snatch squad" used to arrest two street performers known as the "tranny cops" in July 2007. Protesters received blows and injuries as the police made their way into the middle of the crowd, resulting in one elderly woman being taken to hospital by ambulance.
Containment
Containment includes a range of common police tactics such as creating barricades or walls of police to prevent activists getting to an area, separating activists or keeping them contained in one small area.
At the Books Not Bombs demonstration in Sydney in 2 April 2003, a rally was held in Sydney Square, in between the Town Hall and St. Andrew’s Cathedral. About 1,200 protesters attended, and police cordoned off the area with rows of police. One estimate given for the number of police that were present to cordon off the area was 1,000.
Using the media to promote images of protester behaviour as ‘violent and illegal’
The Police Media Unit provides information to the mainstream media, which is then sometimes used to present protesters as violent elements of the community who are only out to cause trouble and break the law. Often, peaceful protests will be ignored by the media, while even a small scuffle will make the protest ‘newsworthy.’ The result is that activists are often marginalised, essentially making it more difficult for activists to gain numbers at protests and garner community support for their causes.
NSW Police have an extensive 24/7 media support, where police information is presumably heavily edited before being passed to journalists.
Tasers
At the time of writing, Tasers have not been used against protesters or activists in Australia.
Further reading and sources
There is an extensive literature in how the media presents protests. See, for example, Dealing with Demonstrations, the law of public protest and its enforcement by Roger Douglas, Federation Press 2004, Leichhardt, NSW. ISBN 1 86287 487 5.
For a detailed report of the investigation of one protest, see Investigation of Police Action at the World Economic Forum Demonstration September 2000 by the Victorian Ombudsman June 2001.
Also of interest is Blue Army by Dr Jude McCulloch.